


Cabin Fever

by nerdzeword



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: (on accident), F/F, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Jeremy joins the murder club, M/M, Snowed In, What's That?, You didn't want wholesome family bonding, and an andrew and jeremy bromance?, and uno, andrew is a book dealer, cabin in the woods, christmas shenanigans, copious numbers of board games, humor?, offscreen minor character death, only a smidge of murder this time, too bad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:27:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28233150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdzeword/pseuds/nerdzeword
Summary: Neil wasn't actually trying to challenge his husband, but when Andrew takes the challenge anyway they find themselves locked in a remote cabin in the woods with six other people for the holidays.
Relationships: Aaron Minyard & Andrew Minyard, Alvarez/Laila Dermott, Andrew Minyard & Jeremy Knox, Jeremy Knox/Jean Moreau, Katelyn/Aaron Minyard, Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Comments: 9
Kudos: 94
Collections: AFTG Exchange Winter 2020





	Cabin Fever

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thetasteofsunshine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thetasteofsunshine/gifts).



> This is my winter exchange fic for @youknow-igetit on tumblr! I loved your prompts and made it my personal goal to include as many of them as possible.
> 
> Much thank you to the squad for the group effort in betaing. I appreciate all of you.

It started, like most things in Neil’s life, with a bet. 

If you had asked Neil who he thought Andrew would befriend and promptly continue to seek out, until they were nearly inseparable, Jeremy Knox was not the first person that came to mind. He wasn’t really sure what it was that pulled Andrew and Jeremy together, maybe it was that they were both working towards a Masters in Social Work, or that Jeremy never pushed Andrew to talk, but whatever it was, the two of them had it in spades. Even more alarming than the friendship itself however, was the fact that combined, the two of them were never ending pools of chaotic energy that Neil himself was not motivated enough to try and stop. 

Usually their combined energy manifested itself in the form of complex drinking games, or feats of strength, or that one particularly volatile game of Mario Kart. The bet was new, but not completely unexpected, all things considered. It began on a rainy sunday afternoon in September. The exy season was just taking off, so they still had a bit of free time, which Andrew had spent reading a book while Neil scrolled through Facebook. 

“What do you think? Would we survive living in a cabin in the woods for a month with six other people, without any technology, in exchange for a million dollars?”

Andrew looked up at him. “Yes,” he answered immediately. 

“Who would the other people be?” Neil wondered aloud. His first thought was of course the foxes, but he was aware that putting Andrew in close proximity to Allison or Nicky for that long would be just asking for another murder charge. “You could probably convince Jeremy, but he would of course want to bring Jean. Aaron and Katelyn... You mostly get along with them now. Who else?” Neil pondered as Andrew thought about it himself. 

“Alvarez and Durmott,” Andrew said. “But Jeremy could never make it a month without the internet.” 

Neil laughed, and would have written the entire thing off as a joke, but then Andrew pulled out his phone to text the question to Jeremy. Sometimes Neil wondered if everyone else’s lives spiraled out of control in the span of a few text messages. Surely he couldn’t be the only one whose partner was willing to drop thousands of dollars just to rent out a cabin in the mountains for a month on a bet? 

But he had, so Neil had packed a bag with enough supplies to last them a month in the mountains, and arranged for Matt to look after the cats for them. Despite the questionable motives behind the trip, Neil couldn’t say he was unhappy about the chance to spend more time with his husband for the holidays, and the chance to road trip with just him and Andrew and Andrew’s questionable playlist? Worth every minute he would later have to spend in Aaron’s presence.

##  Day 1

“Andrew!” Jeremy greeted them with all the exuberance of a puppy, but didn’t make any sort of move to touch him. Jean nodded to them from beside him, as silent and stoic as always. Neil quite frankly didn’t know what Jeremy saw in him, but then again he also did not see what Andrew saw in Jeremy, or what Katelyn saw in Aaron either, so he decided that there was just no accounting for taste. And obviously none of them had any. Not that he minded, since it meant he was the one wearing the matching wedding rings with Andrew. They were meeting the rest of their group at the little gas station at the base of the mountain so they could pick up any last minute supplies. It had been agreed upon in the weirdly complex terms Andrew and Jeremy had drawn up, that no one would be taking the cars anywhere after they had reached the cabin, so anything they needed had to be acquired before they went up.

“Do we have all the food we need?” Katelyn had taken over the logistical planning for the trip with gusto. Aaron fluttered around her, looking alarmed whenever she moved. She ignored him and his hovering, which Neil found admirable, as he would have snapped long before. 

"Yes!" Alvarez appeared bouncing on her toes as she greeted them. Neil thought he should probably learn her first name at some point during this trip, but he figured he would just ask Andrew what it was when the time came. 

“Everyone has all the clothes they need for a month? Toiletries?” Katelyn continued down her list. Andrew rolled his eyes at her, but didn’t say anything about her compulsive questioning. Neil thought it was a bit hilarious how willing Andrew was to try and get along with Katelyn now that he would be getting a niece or nephew out of it. Even funnier was how well the two of them actually got along when they tried.

Katelyn continued down her list, but Neil tuned her out, looking at the extra suitcase that Andrew had thrown in the car at the last minute. He couldn’t think of anything he could have needed that would require an entire suitcase like that, but before Neil could actually ask about it, Katelyn had apparently been satisfied by their packing and gave them the go ahead to continue up the mountain to the rental cabin. 

##  Day 2

It turned out that Andrew’s mystery bag was full of books. Just books.

“Did you bring the entire bookshelf with you?” Neil asked him after he pulled a third book out of the bag.

“Only the ones I haven’t read yet.” Neil was pretty sure that was still a yes, as Andrew didn’t keep books after reading them unless he  _ really  _ liked the book.

“Why do you need so many?”

“Business opportunities.”

“What does that mean?”

“Don’t worry about it,” he responded, organizing them spine up in the dresser drawers. 

“I’m pretty sure those are for clothes,” Neil commented from the bed. Andrew continued with his organization as if Neil hadn’t spoken at all. Neil was about to ask if he had heard him when Andrew finally responded.

“Only rich people actually use rental dressers for their clothes.” 

Neil stared at him for a minute. “Andrew. We are rich.” They made eye contact before looking back at the dresser again.

“Maybe not that rich though,” Neil finally decided.

##  Day 3

By day three they had somewhat gotten themselves into a rhythm. They would wake up late, and Neil, Jeremy, and Jean would go for a run through the woods behind the cabin, where Neil would resist the urge to punch Jean or pat Jeremy on the head like a dog. He would then come back to find Katelyn making breakfast because she didn’t trust anyone else in the house with the cooking - “Because you’re all stupid jocks who think that a protien bar counts as food,” she claimed. While Katelyn cooked, Andrew and Aaron would start a petty fight that they somehow would manage to drag Laila and Alvarez into. 

Neil had yet to figure out what the hell they were even arguing about, or who was on what team. He was a bit afraid to ask at this point. 

##  Day 4

“Where do you think she goes?” Aaron asked in a whisper after Alvarez slipped out the back door for the third day in a row.

“The shed,” Jean answered, sounding bored with the conversation. 

“Okay, but what does she  _ do  _ in there? It’s a fucking shed, what could be so fascinating that she almost missed dinner to do it?”

“Not a clue.”

“I bet she’s making drugs.”

“Ten bucks says she’s reading porn.”

“I’ll put fifteen on her dissociating for four hours straight,” Andrew commented from where he was sitting behind Neil on the floor. He was putting little braids in Neil’s hair and pretending not to care about the rest of them, but Neil was pretty sure no one was fooled.

“Maybe she’s been possessed?” Jeremy commented. 

##  Day 5

“Hey guys! I found a TV!” Aaron called out, dragging a TV from out of the hall closet. There was some excited chatter as they all gathered around him to see. 

“Wait. Does that violate the terms?” Laila asked. They all turned to look at Andrew and Jeremy, who seemed to be having a massive stare off. 

Eventually Jeremy turned to them and said, “The terms state that anything we find in the house as long as it is not connected to the internet is fair game. The TV is analog, so the ruling stands.” 

“Yes!” Alvarez jumped on Laila’s back in celebration.

The celebratory mood was short lived however, as they discovered after plugging it in that the tv was also incapable of receiving even the most basic of channels, and thus was only good for watching DVD’s. The problem was that no one had thought to bring any dvd’s, so the only options they could find in the cabin were a rated R movie none of them had ever heard of, The Last Mimzy, and a random heteronormative Hallmark Christmas movie, which was immediately banned after ten minutes, because within that time Katelyn had burst into tears and it took her two hours and three mugs of tea to calm down.

##  Day 6

Sleep. That was what he was going to do, Neil decided, having woken up with a horrible headache. He was on vacation, and had a terrifying husband to protect him, he could sleep if he wanted to. Allison would call it self care. He was supposed to be working on that anyway.

“Don’t wake me up,” he informed Andrew imperiously before burrowing back under the blankets and closing his eyes again. Andrew didn’t even look up from his book. 

When Neil next awoke, his headache was only slightly better. Andrew was still reading, but Neil was pretty sure it was a different book this time. He crawled out of bed and wandered into the kitchen. Aaron and Jean were huddled over something on the table, talking a mile a minute. Aaron’s hair was a mess and he had a split lip. Jean had a black eye, but neither of them seemed to notice as they stared at whatever was on the table. 

“What’s going on over there?” he asked Katelyn as he filled up the kettle. 

“They got into a fistfight - it scared me half to death - but they apparently worked it out and are now somehow best friends? I will never understand men.” 

“Ah,” Neil responded succinctly He didn’t think he would ever understand men either. He poured his mug of tea and gave Katelyn a little wave before taking his tea and crawling back into bed with Andrew.

“I will never understand men,” he told his husband seriously as he sipped his tea, still deep in thought.

“Mm,” Andrew grunted in response and turned his page. Neil finished his tea and curled back up under the covers. Maybe tomorrow would make more sense.

##  Day 11

The snow began in the afternoon, though they had known it was coming for hours based on the dramatic drop in temperature, and the general “snowy vibes” as Alvarez called them. She was still disappearing into her shed for hours at a time, but it was for shorter stretches than before. If Laila knew what she was doing in there, she wasn’t telling, and no one wanted to be the first to ask Alvarez about her secret project. 

“We can do snow things!” Jeremy said. 

“Snowmen!” Alvarez joined in.

“Snow angels!”

“Snowball fights!”

“To the death!” Laila chipped in with a grin.

“We cannot do anything until the storm actually  _ stops.” _ Jean cut through their enthusiasm with the ease of a butter knife. 

Neil looked back down at the puzzle he was doing in front of the fire, and thought about the snow outside again. “I think I’m good thanks.” 

Andrew looked up from his book and placed one of the pieces Neil had been staring at for what seemed like hours. “I’m staying inside. You can all go die of hypothermia for all I care,” he responded to Jeremy’s unspoken plea without actually looking up at his puppy dog eyes. They were fairly impressive puppy dog eyes, they might have actually worked on anyone other than Andrew.

“Once again.  _ Not until it’s stopped snowing.  _ Why are we even talking about this now?” Jean demanded, pressing Jeremy back into his chair. Jeremy pouted, but he was easily distracted by an impromptu game of hangman.

  
  


##  Day 12

“I’m so tired of playing Go Fish. Are there no other games we can play? Monopoly?”

“We didn’t bring it.”

“Hand and Foot?” 

“We only have one deck of cards.”

“Damn it.”

##  Day 13

Neil awoke to screaming. Growing up as he did, this wasn’t exactly a new situation for him. The body in the middle of the kitchen, however, was. It didn’t take long for the others to join him in the doorway.

“Is he dead?” Neil asked, relaxing once he realized that Jeremy - who was still screaming - was just freaking out, and not actually hurt. Aaron moved to check the man’s pulse, but it was Katelyn who thought to kick the gun from the guy’s hand out of his reach.

“Yeah he’s dead,” Aaron confirmed. Jeremy finally stopped screaming and was now sobbing into Jean’s chest. Neil felt a little bit bad for him, not everyone had the countenance for killing a man, and Jeremy was softer than Jean, or Neil’s foxes. He was probably softer than Laila and Alvarez too actually.

“What even happened here? Laila asked, staring at Jeremy, who was still crying on Jean. 

Andrew hummed from beside Neil and said in his most intentionally bratty tone, “Isn’t it obvious?” Neil thought he probably shouldn’t be as amused by Andrew being obnoxious as he was. A man was dead for fucks sake.

“The man was obviously here to kill someone, or he wouldn’t have had a gun in his hand,” Andrew continued. “If I had to guess, I’d say that he came in while Jeremy was making tea and startled him. Jeremy reacted on instinct and emptied the kettle on him before throwing it at the man, who got knocked off balance and hit his head on the counter.” 

Jeremy’s head shot up from Jean’s arms. “How did you know that!” The weird awestruck puppy dog look on his face was back, so Neil assumed that meant Jeremy was just in shock, and not actually traumatized. That was probably a good thing?

Andrew gave him his most deadpan look. “There’s hot water all over the floor, the kettle has a dent in it, and the guy’s blood is on the counter.” Everyone turned to look at the guy again.

“So. Do we like, bury him?” Neil asked. Four heads turned to stare at him in alarm. “What?”

Aaron just sounded resigned when he answered “No, you moron. It was self defense. He obviously had a gun. We should call the police!”

“Oh.”

“... You forgot about the police didn’t you.”

“Well it’s not like they’ve ever helped  _ me  _ with anything.” 

“I swear to God Neil- ” before Aaron and Neil could really get into it, they were interrupted by Katelyn. 

“Focus, people. Who has their phone on them?” 

“No one. All of our phones were locked in the cars so we wouldn’t be tempted to use them remember?” Laila pointed out.

“Well someone is going to have to go get one, because I refuse to share a house with this guy.” She pointed at the dead guy.

“Who do you think he was after anyway?” Alvarez wondered aloud. 

“Honestly it could have been any of us,” Neil commented lightly.

“No it fucking could not have been any of us,” Alvarez snapped back at him. She was giving him a look like he had suddenly grown an extra limb. Oh. Pissing off numerous mafias was not a normal thing. Right.

“Ah. Okay he was probably after me then. Thanks for the save I guess, Knox?” Jean rolled his eyes at Neil’s apparent incompetence, and stalked out of the room, only to return a moment later with his boots on and his coat in hand. 

“I’m going to get a phone. Don’t kill anyone else while I’m gone,” he told the group before stalking out of the cabin. Jeremy made a distressed noise. 

“Don’t worry about it Jeremy, we’ve all been there.” Neil patted him on the shoulder and moved to the cupboard to pull out the tea. They were probably going to need it. Jeremy made another strangled noise, but Neil ignored him in face of a terrible dilemma. 

“Oh. The kettle is evidence now, isn’t it?”

##  Day 14

“Right.” They were all sitting around the table with hot chocolate, having finally taken showers and broken out Laila’s secret stash of poptarts. “So what are we doing now?” Laila finally asked.

That was the question of the hour really, they had tried calling 911 from each of their phones for most of the night, but they were apparently too far away from a cell tower to be able to actually reach someone. 

“I mean, normally, I wouldn’t recommend messing with the body, but it’s still fucking snowing, so none of us are leaving this cabin for at least a couple of days. And we’re going to need to use the kitchen,” Aaron finally said. 

“We can put him on the porch? The cold will keep him from getting too messed up, and we’ll have the kitchen back,” Alvarez tentatively suggested

“That sounds like a terrible plan,” Jean declared

“Do  _ you  _ have a better one?” Laila bristled at her former teammate. 

“That sounds fine,” Neil cut in before they could really get into it. “We should take a picture before we move anything though.” It was agreed, through a drawing of straws, that Andrew and Aaron would be the ones to actually move the body, which left the rest of them to clean the blood out of the kitchen.

“Make sure you scrub it well. I want my deposit back,” Andrew told them as he watched from the couch. Neil shot him a dirty look but didn’t offer him the dignity of a response. 

##  Day 15 

“Uno! Draw ten!”

“I fucking said Uno first you prick! And those aren’t even the fucking rules!” 

Neil rearranged his cards while the rest of the table argued. He was rather pleased with his attempts at creating chaos within the game. No one had to know that he held not one, but two of the Draw Fours in his three card hand. No one would see him coming until it was too late. The ideal way to play this game really.

“You can’t play a wild card on top of another wild card moron!” 

“Says who?”

“The fucking rules!”

“I don’t believe you.” Yes, Neil’s plan was going perfectly.

##  Day 16 

It was nearly dark out when Alvarez suddenly kicked open the door with a loud bang.

“What is  _ up _ lads! Guess who just built us a goddamn table!” She dragged what looked like a wooden card table through the door behind her, the dramatic entrance somewhat spoiled by the fact that she had to stop and maneuver it through the doorway. It wasn’t even a shoddily built table, it was made out of tree branches that were woven together, and Neil would honestly have thought that it came from some sort of mountain town furniture store, had she not been accounted for the entire time. Neil was more than a little impressed by it if he was being honest.

“Wait. So who wins the pot then?”

The problem, they discovered, was that the table was perfect for playing games like scrabble, where they had to be able to reach the entire board. It was less good for games like Uno, where everyone wanted to participate. This left the struggle of no matter who was using the table, four people had to find something else to do. 

Which was apparently the opportunity that Andrew had been waiting for.

“Can I read that when you’re done?” Aaron asked him. Andrew barely even glanced up from his book.

“Five bucks.”

“What?”

“Five bucks a book, that’s how much I’m charging.”

“What the hell? You brought like a hundred different books Andrew, surely you can share.”

“Fine. I’ll cut you a deal, you can read three of them for ten bucks instead.”

“This is unethical and immoral,” Aaron complained, even as he dug through his wallet.

“Pleasure doing business, brother dearest,” Andrew said, pocketing the bill.

##  Day 19

Neil was unclear as to why they were all standing on the porch with the dead guy, just staring at the snow. Well, he had a vague idea. The snow had petered off somewhere around four that morning, and it was now sunny as could be. Unfortunately, it was still cold as fuck, and it turned out that snow no longer falling did not make the snow on the ground magically disappear. 

“So are we going to try and go out or-”

“Are you insane? It’s like, negative two degrees and there’s three feet of snow!” Jean looked at Laila, aghast. Neil personally thought it was a very reasonable question, but no one ever wanted to hear his opinion. 

“Only in some places, stop being dramatic.” Laila rolled her eyes. 

“Unfortunately, Jean is right. There’s no way we can dig the cars out, and it’s too cold to try and make it down the mountain on foot. We’re going to have to wait,” Jeremy said remorsefully. 

“Right, Well, who’s up for another game of Scrabble? I don’t think I’m done crushing you all yet,” Neil said cheerily. Katelyn sighed despondently, and gazed at the dead guy in disgust.

“I just wanted him  _ gone,” _ she said mournfully.

##  Day 24

“It’s Christmas Eve!” Alvarez sang from the kitchen on the morning of the 24th. “We must do something!” Neil loaded up his and Andrew’s plates with some of Katelyn’s pancakes.

“What did you have in mind?” he asked her as he absentmindedly dug through the fridge for the whipped cream Andrew would be demanding within a minute or so.

“Gingerbread cookies! Or rather gingerbread houses. We can have a contest! Pairings! I can kick Jean’s ass! It will be great!” Neil exchanged a look with Laila, who just shrugged in a ‘girlfriends, what can you do?’ gesture.

“I’m in. But Jean isn’t allowed to pair with Jeremy if you plan on beating him,” Andrew said, accepting the plate of sugar coated pancakes that Neil handed him.

“Oh? Mixing it up? I accept! Laila gets to arrange the pairs!” Alvarez declared.

“If we’re all pairing up, who will be the judge?” Aaron asked, accepting a plate of his own from Katelyn. Laila looked thoughtful. 

“Jeremy should be a judge because he has a  _ vision  _ that none of us can hope to compare to, and so should Katelyn, because I feel like she’s the least biased.” None of them could really argue with that, so it was decided that Neil would partner with Laila, Jean with Aaron, and Andrew with Alvarez. Alvarez’s dramatic declaration was apparently an act of war, and she quickly spurred Andrew into a heated rivalry with Aaron as well. Neil and Laila just watched them from the sidelines, their house looking like something out of a horror movie with all of its strange shapes and weird angles, they had given up trying to actually compete with the others, so they were trying to instead play up the horror movie angle, with little gravestones in the yard, and some little ghosts in the windows. Andrew and Aaron were trading heated barbs, but Neil could tell that Andrew was actually enjoying himself.

To everyone’s surprise, Jeremy and Katlyn voted Neil and Laila’s haunted house to be the winner, stating it was ‘cute’ and ‘the ghosts were charming.’ Neil lorded his victory over Andrew for the rest of the day, until Andrew shut him up with a pillow to the face. Neil thought it wasn’t a bad holiday tradition, all things considered.

##  Day 25

Christmas morning started like most of the others, barring the ‘day of the dead guy’, as Jeremy had so aptly named it. The cabin had a Christmas tree set up, which they had largely ignored, but Neil was pleasantly surprised to discover that everyone had collectively decided to place their presents under it anyway. They didn’t really do the whole exchanging gifts thing in a formal manner, mostly since most of them had only gotten gifts for one or two other people anyway. (Excepting Jeremy, who got everyone gifts.) Neil himself had only gotten Andrew a present, and it was just a new lighter since his old one had stopped working months ago. He didn’t smoke anymore, so he didn’t  _ technically  _ need a lighter, but Neil knew he liked playing with it anyway.

Andrew had given out two presents, to Neil’s surprise. He gave Neil a sequined pillow, which said “You’re the worst” and “I hate you.” depending on which way you brushed the sequins. Neil loved it. He also, however, gave Aaron a present. Neil didn’t care about Aaron, or his shitty presents, so he had tuned out the exchange after Andrew had thrown the package at Aaron’s head, but it had somehow ended with the twins wrestling on the floor, not a single knife in sight. According to Jeremy, who had at least three, but less than twelve siblings - this was normal sibling behavior. Neil still thought it was weird as fuck.

##  Day 26

Neil was not actually sure how he got roped into this. One minute he was bothering his husband as usual, the next Laila was dragging him into the bathroom and covering his face in foundation. (Apparently it was actually Alvarez’s foundation, as Katelyn’s was too dark, and Laila’s far too light.) He had to admit when she was done with whatever makeup voodoo she was doing, that it actually looked pretty spectacular. He didn’t really have the vocabulary necessary to describe it, but it was blue and gold and shimmered when he turned his head. And it had rendered Andrew speechless for a solid minute, so that was a plus. 

According to Jeremy (painted in orange and yellow like the sunshine he was), this was something she used to do with the Trojans too, and even Jean (light blue and silver), and Aaron (green and white), didn’t complain about being dragged into the bathroom for a makeover. Andrew had refused to let Laila put any makeup on him, but he had borrowed her kit and come back from the bathroom wearing what Neil assumed was eyeliner? It was dark and dramatic, and very Andrew. Neil loved it.

##  Day 27

The day finally came when they judged it warm enough to go down the mountain for help. They of course decided who was in charge of this by their usual method of drawing straws. It was the fairest way. Well, mostly fair, Katelyn was exempted by nature of her being pregnant, and Andrew and Neil were exempted because no one wanted either of them trying to explain what happened to the authorities. Aaron and Jeremy eventually ended up being the poor sods who had to go trudging through the snow to the outpost at the bottom of the mountain. The rest of them passed the time as usual, Neil crushing everyone at Scrabble and putting the one puzzle they had back together again after Jean had put it away. 

It was nearly dark by the time they returned, and they all gave sighs of relief. 

“Their snowmobiles are broken, and they couldn’t get to the next closest ones and back up here before it got dark, but they should be able to get Mr. Body out of here tomorrow morning,” Jeremy explained. 

“Finally!” Alvarez exclaimed as she collapsed backwards onto the couch, and coincidentally Laila who was sitting there.

“This calls for celebration!”

“Tequila!”

“What the fuck, we are not celebrating with tequila, you absolute heathen. Not when we have perfectly good whiskey in the house.”

##  Day 28

By the time the authorities arrived on their snowmobiles, the group had all gotten tired of waiting and bundled up to go outside and play in the snow. Jeremy had built a rather stunning snow replica of the dead guy to sit in the opposite chair, and given them matching sunglasses. Andrew had started rolling a snowball, and by the time he was unable to push it any longer, the ball was around four feet high. He built up the snow around the base, and then started meticulously carving out a hole in the middle. Neil estimated it would probably be able to fit around two people in it when he was done. 

Alvarez had pulled a sled out of her shed, and was pulling Laila around on it, since they didn’t have a hill around that wasn’t also riddled with trees. Aaron and Jean had started a snowball fight that Neil egged on with a few well-timed, secret snowballs of his own.

Neil had no idea what the police had said upon finding the dead guy sitting on the porch with a snow martini glass in front of him, complete with a little snow olive - as his hiding place for his snowball subterfuge was out of hearing distance - but he could guess from the hand gestures that they were both baffled, and a bit concerned. He thought at least one of them might have found it funny however. The police took the gun, which they had stashed in a plastic bag and shoved in the hall closet for safekeeping, and the dead guy, who looked no worse for wear considering he had been on the porch in the snow for like fifteen days, and after making Neil fill out more paperwork than he’d had to do to become a real person, and sign some autographs for the one who was apparently an exy fan, they let the group get back to their vacation.

Neil wasn’t really sure that was how the law was supposed to work, but he wasn’t about to argue. Andrew would probably know if that was how the law was supposed to work, but he had already gone back to his book anyway, so even if he cared at one point, he didn’t anymore.

##  Day 29

“Are we really taking all of these books back with us?” Neil asked, watching Andrew pull the books out of the drawers.

“Only the ones I haven’t read.” He pointed to a very small stack sitting on the bed.

“And the others?” Andrew didn’t answer, just started shoving books in every crevice he could find. One went in the medicine cabinet in the bathroom. One went under the pillow on the bed. Neil laughed when he started filling the space underneath the dresser. When Andrew had found all of the hiding places in the bedroom, he picked up the rest of them and left the room to presumably do the same with the rest of the cabin. 

Neil thought the random books everywhere might distract the owners from discovering the bloodstain they hadn’t been able to completely remove from the hardwood floors.

##  Day 30

They had actually made it to the main road before the car got stuck in the snow. Neil thought that was particularly unfair. They made it all the way down the unplowed side road, just to get stuck in the fucking berm left by the snow plow on the main road. 

Luckily, Laila was prepared for any eventuality, and had a shovel in her jeep, so they could dig themselves out. Or they could in theory. The reality was that Andrew and Aaron had started shoving snow down one another’s shirts and abandoned the rest of them in their feud. Laila and Alvarez had followed their example, and dragged Neil and Jeremy alongside, leaving only Katelyn and Jean to dig the car out of the snowbank.

Neil wasn’t too worried though, they would get it out eventually. 

Probably.

**Author's Note:**

> Notes:  
> 1\. @youknow-igetit I know I am very late in posting this, but it was finals week and I forgot I am an adult who has to do adult things. In apology I will admit to stalking your blog and inform you that I wrote a Princess and the Pauper AU back in like May, so have fun with that too.  
> 2\. My brother used to try to charge all of us five dollars to do anything. It was the worst.  
> 3\. I was writing this at the same time as my historiography paper, so I apologize for all the accidental academic writing in it.  
> 4\. my cousins made a snow fort out of a giant snowball once. it was pretty cool.  
> 5\. Actual conversation in the gc while writing:  
> Jade:HOW DO YOU GO INTO A FIC AND STUMBLE UPON A MURDER???  
> Me:THE MURDER STUMBLED UPON MY CABIN JADE  
> Jade:THAT MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL  
> Me: I WAS ALL READY TO WRITE THEM CREAMING EACH OTHER AT UNO AND DRINKING HOT CHOCOLATE AND HE JUST COMES STUMBLING OUT OF THE SNOW WITH MURDEROUS INTENT! I WASN'T GOING TO JUST _LET HIM LIVE_


End file.
